Moonrise on the Loire at Briare
Artist
Henri Joseph Harpignies
(French, 1819-1916)
CultureFrench
Date1866
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions50 1/4 x 85 1/4 in. (127.6 x 216.5 cm)
Overall, Frame: 54 x 87 1/4 in. (137.2 x 221.6 cm)
Overall, Frame: 54 x 87 1/4 in. (137.2 x 221.6 cm)
InscribedSigned and dated lower left: h. harpignies 1866
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.658
Collections
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 217
Label TextHenri Joseph Harpignies French (1819-1916) Moonrise on the Loire at Briare, 1866 Oil on canvas Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.658 Celebrated today as one of the last major painters of the Barbizon school of landscapists, Harpignies was influenced especially by the art of Camille Corot (whose painting The Roman Campagna in Winter is also on view here). During his middle years Harpignies often worked in the Nivernais region in central France, painting the countryside along the Loire River. This is the setting of Harpignies's unusually large and ambitious Moonrise on the Loire at Briare, which he painted in 1866 and showed at the 1885 Salon. The poetic twilight scene captures the fleeting atmosphere of early evening, when the sun has set but still lights the sky. Majestic oaks, already shrouded in shadow, are silhouetted against the sky's fading light. Just beneath them, barely visible in the gathering darkness, a figure hurries along a country path. ProvenanceBapterosse, Paris; Chaulot, Paris; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum of Art, 1971. Exhibition HistorySalon, Paris, 1885. (Exhib. cat. no. 1229). "French Paintings 1789-1929 from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, March 25 - May 22, 1960. (Exhib. cat. no. 31). "The Controversial Century, 1850-1950," Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts, June 16 - Sept. 3, 1961; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Sept. 28 - Nov. 4, 1962. "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. Published ReferencesPriscilla C. Colt and Charles H. Elam. _French Paintings 1789-1929 from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._. Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio. 1960: 39, 137, no. 31. Foreword by Charles F. Comfort, LL.D., and an introduction by William S.A. Dale, Ph.D. _The Controversial Century: 1850-1950_. Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts. 1962 Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum. 1991. #93, 118.
